IF YOU’VE GOT IT

Every bar stool is filled. Customers squeeze in a shoulder if they can, tap on the bar to get the main bartender’s attention. Eddie is a show, glib tongue, computer mind, fast and handsome. The place is The Gaggling Goose 2. The proprietor, Gary Gold, has a thing for ‘Gs’ and used it to open his 2nd drinking spot. From minute one, Gary knows Eddie will be a winner. He pays him more than the going rate and doesn’t care how much he makes in tips that aren’t reported to the IRS.

Tipsy, laughing drinkers fill the small dance floor. The music is loud, exciting. It pounds. Move it, move it all, let yourself go or go home. Ladies lean over the bar, vie with each other to let Eddie see whatever it is they have. He feigns interest, takes some time to fill the pistachio bowls, and places them close to the hungry women. Eddie plays Tom Cruise in ‘Risky Business’ to the hilt without knowing it. He is too young to have seen the movie. Tom Cruise, who? That old has-been?

Gary’s liquor license is clearly visible. The crowd seldom exceeds the limit. All possible fire protection, lit exit signs, unlocked doors are accessible. Drugs surely slip in but obvious wrong doers are put out as quietly as possible.

And then comes Saturday night, Aug. 8, an ordinary, busy, fun Saturday night. At 11 p.m. a hush starts at the front door and spreads fast. All eyes look that way. Bar stools spin. The music stops, A spotlight focuses, touches a gorgeous, knock-em-dead lady in a smooth, perfectly fitted white satin gown mostly covering a perfect size four body. She is holding the arm of a handsome gentleman, quite a bit shorter than she is. His hair is silvery gray at the temples. His broad smile and wink elicit applause from the surprised customers. The standing crowd moves back, opening a path for the couple to reach the bar.

Two week-end regulars rise and give the gorgeous lady their bar seats. The lady sits. The sparsely silver haired man pushes his stool away, agilely jumps on top of the bar and lands perfectly behind it, facing front. The applause shakes Gary’s license off the wall.

Tom picks up a cocktail shaker, pours in 2 ounces gin, ½ oz. dry vermouth, ½ oz. sweet vermouth and shakes it with a fiery flare. Eddie is ready and has lined up a dozen chilled cocktail glasses, plates of olives and lemon twists. Tom fills 4 glasses and mixes another batch. Noone takes a sip until all the glasses are filled. Together they salute Tom and the beautiful lady in the white satin gown. Tom takes out his money clip, puts most of its contents on the bar, shakes hands with Eddie, slipping him as quietly as possible, all that is left in his clip.

The smile on Tom’s face is not for the cameras. It’s for real. For a short time the years, his silver sideburns have disappeared. The lady takes his arm and they go home to tranquility and wonderful new memories.